Sodium ion set to impact thriving US battery market
Reuters Events Renewables
The reference point for renewable energy executives - industry leading news, analysis and global events.
As U.S. battery deployment soars, sodium ion is coming. Below, we assess the impact on the utility-scale storage market.
Also this week, the U.S. sets out preliminary countervailing duties on Asia, Swiss panel maker Meyer Burger plans to cut 20% of workforce and global solar costs fall to 56% below fossil fuels.
Please forward this article to your colleagues and join the conversation!
Sodium ion set to impact thriving US battery market
A new factory shows how sodium ion will gain an increasing share of the U.S. energy storage market as developers seek to reduce global supply chain risks.
In August, Natron Energy announced plans for a 24 GW sodium-ion battery factory in North Carolina, scaling up its production capacity by 40 times. The $1.4 billion facility would be supported by a North Carolina Job Development Grant, the company said.
The announcement comes amid a surge in U.S. solar and energy storage installations, boosted by tax incentives in the Biden administration's 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.
Lithium ion batteries currently dominate energy storage installations but volatile global prices for lithium and other crucial minerals have improved the case for sodium ion.
Sodium-ion batteries use similar structures and manufacturing technologies to lithium ion but key materials can be sourced domestically. Natron's planned factory will use no lithium, cobalt, or nickel, relying instead on common materials like aluminum and sodium.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts sodium-ion batteries will account for around 10% of annual energy storage additions globally by 2030 and grow further beyond that.
Volatile lithium prices could make sodium ion competitive, Teo Lombardo, energy modeler at IEA, told Reuters Events.
"We do believe that it will [play a role], because the technology is quite ready,” Lombardo said.
Join us at?Solar & Storage USA?and network with hundreds of leading developers, financiers, policy makers and suppliers. Part of?Energy LIVE.
Natron Energy is focusing on industrial applications and prioritising features such as fast recharging speeds.
Key early customers will include "data centers, mobility, electric vehicle fast charging, microgrids, and telecom companies," the company said.
Supply chains remain at an early stage and while pilot utility-scale projects are underway, cost reductions will be needed for sodium ion to truly impact the wider energy storage market.
If supply chains are scaled up, some types of sodium-ion batteries could be cost competitive for utility-scale customers, Natron Energy co-CEO Colin Wessells told Reuters Events.
Storage surge
U.S. solar installations are soaring and most developers are now looking to include energy storage in their projects.
Rising solar and wind capacity increase the value of energy storage and the inflation act included tax credits for stand-alone energy storage projects for the first time.
Developers can gain a 30% investment tax credit (ITC) with additional bonus credits for meeting labor, domestic content or environmental justice requirements.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Planned US utility-scale power additions in 2024
Sodium-ion batteries have lower energy density than lithium-ion batteries, making them better suited for stationary storage rather than most electric vehicle applications.
Investments in sodium-ion manufacturing climbed after lithium prices surged in 2021 and 2022, particularly in China. High lithium prices led to increased global mining capacity and supply outpaced demand in 2023, causing a sharp retreat in critical mineral prices—lithium fell 75%, and cobalt, nickel, and graphite dropped 30% to 45%, according to the IEA.
Get the latest data on U.S. energy storage deployment in our?free market report.
In its net zero economy scenario, the IEA predicts that further innovation in battery chemistries and manufacturing reduces global average lithium-ion battery costs by 40% between 2023 and 2030 and brings sodium?ion batteries to the market.
领英推荐
The IEA predicts sodium-ion batteries will take a growing share of the energy storage market as they use less expensive materials and do not use lithium, resulting in production costs that can be 30% less than lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries.
Looking ahead, "technological innovation will remain important for scaling up novel designs and chemistries such as sodium-ion batteries," it said.
? ? ? ? ? ? ?Forecast global storage additions by cathode chemistry
U.S. company Peak Energy is developing large-scale sodium-ion storage and is looking to deliver its first pilot systems in 2025 to six U.S. customers that include three of the top five largest Independent Power Producers (IPPs). The company plans to scale up production in the following year and reach full scale in 2027.
Successful pilot projects are needed to improve the bankability of commercial sodium-ion projects, Helen Brauner, senior VP of business development at clean power developer Lightsource BP, told Reuters Events.
A lot of developers are "technology agnostic" when it comes to battery chemistry but they want to know the technology is safe, reliable and bankable, Brauner said.
China leads
The ability to source components domestically is a key advantage of sodium-ion technology as governments look to strengthen energy security and expand local industries.
The majority of global lithium processing goes through China and while the U.S. and Europe are ramping up efforts to build out domestic lithium supply chains, growing demand from electric transport will put pressure on global processing capacity in the coming years.
"So there has to be alternative technologies like ours,” Wendell Brooks, co-CEO of Natron Energy, said.
For early access to solar and storage insights, sign up to our newsletter.
As well as dominating the lithium-ion market, China is leading the development of sodium-ion batteries hosting over 90% of announced manufacturing capacity, according to the IEA.
As China ramps up manufacturing capacity, sodium-ion batteries will soon become more commonplace, Cameron Dales, co-founder of Peak Energy, said.
“We are starting to see [sodium ion] get to scale in China," Dales said. "We think that the technology has reached a tipping point where it will become mainstream.”
Reporting by Juliana Ennes
Editing by Robin Sayles
Other major news in solar and storage...
The U.S. Commerce Department has set out preliminary anti-subsidy countervailing duties on solar cells imported from companies in Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Thailand that were lower than some expected for several major Chinese producers.
Solar plus storage projects continued to dominate U.S. hybrid power plant deployment in 2023, raising total solar plus storage capacity to around 22 GW, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) said in an annual report.
Swiss solar panel manufacturer Meyer Burger will cut nearly 20% of its global workforce, the company announced September 18, as it looks to stem losses exacerbated by an influx of cheap imports into Europe from China.
The global levelised cost of solar power fell by a further 12% in 2023 to an average of $44/MWh, making the cost of solar power 56% lower than the lowest-cost fossil fuels, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) said in its latest annual report.